NEW YORK – Today Higher Heights, the leading, independent and trusted political voice for Black women leading up to, and beyond Election Day 2016 launched #BlackWomenVote Get Out the Vote, a nonpartisan campaign. The nationwide effort is to ensure Black women have the news and tools to get out the vote on Nov. 8.

The campaign is being launched on the birthday of civil rights leader and voting rights activist, Fannie Lou Hamer. Hamer organized and encouraged Blacks to register to vote.

She also worked for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which fought racial segregation and injustice in the South. In 1964, she helped found the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Hamer died in 1977, today would have been her 99th birthday.

The campaign is centered around the new website BlackWomenVote.com. The site provides the latest election news, commentary and tools for Black women to prepare to vote, and get out the vote within their social networks. The campaign over the next month, will reach Black women across the country to activate their circles and give them the tools to raise their voice, cast their vote and flex their collective voting power.

"The #BlackWomenVote campaign is being launched on the birthday of Fannie Lou Hamer, because it is about igniting a spark so that the voice of Black women and the power that we hold can be fully put to work and recognized at the ballot box in November," said Glynda C. Carr, co- founder of Higher Heights. "The new campaign provides Black women with tools they can use to vote and get their networks to vote. We know that when you fire up a Black woman she does not go to the polls alone, she brings her house, her block, her church, her sorority, and her water cooler. For us, this election is about harnessing the power of Black women's votes to address and support building economically stable communities and the other issues of the greatest importance to Black women."

The new website includes an Election Center, where women can pledge to vote and make a voting plan as well as connect them to tools like register to vote and find their polling location. The site also includes weekly commentary on news from Black women across the country about this election and current topics focused on issues affecting Black women.

During the course of the campaign #BlackWomenVote will also host a number of on and offline events like town halls, conversations and salons to further energize Black women and emphasize the importance to get out the vote in November, as well as staying active beyond Election Day.

"We have launched this campaign to provide meaningful ways for Black women to organize their networks this election and demonstrate our collective power for change in our communities and nationwide," said Kimberly Peeler Allen, co- founder of Higher Heights. This is really about harnessing the power of Black women to ensure we have a seat at political and economic decision making tables."